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Titans delighted with new Falcons link

Posted: 20/05/2014

Rotherham Titans are delighted to announce a link-up with Premiership side Newcastle Falcons, which will see four Falcons Academy players arrive at Clifton Lane for the full 2014/15 Championship campaign.

"It’s great that we can build links with clubs like Rotherham to help develop our academy players,” said Falcons Academy Manager Mark Laycock.

“Chris Harris, Andy Davies and Ben Morris have been outstanding for Tynedale and Blaydon over the past few seasons and likewise, Sean Robinson (second row) has been a standout player for Durham University and England Students this year. For their long-term development they need to be exposed to the next level of rugby which is what they will get at Rotherham.

“Having known Titans Head Coach Lee Blackett for quite some time we know that the lads will be kept very grounded and will be made to work hard to earn their spot in the team which is exactly what they need. Rotherham have excellent values as a club and the lads will most definitely grow up as rugby players and people in their environment.”

Titans Lee Blackett added, “We are a club that traditionally has never had too many loan agreements, but I think if we are honest with ourselves sometimes we do need these types of agreements. If you look at us this year, if we hadn’t had Tom Holmes, Robin Hislop and Ben Morris, at times we would have been struggling to put out a side.

“We think the relationship with Newcastle Falcons is a great one for two Northern clubs to have. Hopefully once these guys have been here for a full year, Newcastle will be getting a better player back and hopefully we'll have had a quality player for a year.

“We are not the biggest fans of loan deals where the player just comes in on a Thursday and Friday and plays and then goes off, and we don’t see him again for the next four or five days. This is a different agreement and the players coming in will be with us on a full time basis and that will benefit the individuals being here full-time. The players coming in will be here for the first day of pre-season until our last game of the year. Both we and Newcastle believe it's going to be massively beneficial to the boys coming in."

“Being a part of the Newcastle set-up they have played a lot for Blaydon and Tynedale and it's a great opportunity for those guys to make the next step up and I think they wouldn't be in Newcastle’s Academy, if Newcastle didn't believe they’d be going on to become Premiership rugby players. We hope we can be a part of that for them, but it's not just about helping them, I think it's going to benefit us as a club massively and it will give us much more strength in depth across the board.”